Apple snatches US lead from Samsung

Apple took leadership of the US mobile phone market from Samsung for the first time in the last three months of 2012, according to an analyst firm.

Despite its premium pricing, the launch of the iPhone 5 helped Apple to end Samsung’s four-year run as the most popular mobile phone maker in the US, Strategy Analytics said on Friday.

Its report comes amid growing concern on Wall Street about Apple’s future growth and its ability to stave off cheaper competition from smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system.

Helped by strong demand for lower-priced, older versions of the iPhone, Apple shipped an estimated 17.7m phones to the US in the fourth quarter, Strategy Analytics estimates, giving it a share of 34 per cent, up from 25 per cent a year ago.

Samsung’s US share also increased, from 27 per cent in 2011 to 32 per cent late last year, shipping 16.8m phones, as the gap between the two market leaders and rivals such as Nokia and BlackBerry widened.